


We Could Be Beautiful

by teamchaosprez



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, F/F, Fix-It, Hurt/Comfort, Mute Neopolitan (RWBY), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Recovery, Slow Burn, Trans Female Character, Trans Neopolitan (RWBY)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-11
Updated: 2018-11-01
Packaged: 2019-07-29 09:03:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16261004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teamchaosprez/pseuds/teamchaosprez
Summary: ... Just not today.Pyrrha Nikos did not die, but was kept alive as a prisoner to Salem. Neopolitan is tired of being treated badly by her longtime employers. Penny Polendina has been rebuilt, the same but new.This is their story.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this fic is dedicated to my best friend 3d who is also angry at rooster teeth!  
> some things to note:  
> \- i have not watched rwby since the volume 4 finale nor do i intend to  
> \- i am a trans boy

Pyrrha Nikos had never felt such pain in her life. It felt like a stake had been driven into her chest, spikes of agony blossoming from her heart and into her entire body. The pain made her want to pass out, but at the same time still made it impossible to sleep; she was vaguely aware of someone screaming, but couldn’t hear anything over the pounding in her ears and her desperate, choked gasps for breath. _I’m going to die, I was supposed to be one of the most powerful people in the world and I’m going to die._ Tears welled up in bright green eyes, and she felt a touch on her cheek, felt her body begin to fall apart.

For a moment, as she materialized in a small, damp room, she thought that she might be dead. But if she was dead, she wouldn’t be feeling so much pain. Her entire body wouldn’t feel like someone took a lighter to her veins. She landed in a laying position on a hard, cold bed, and she continued to struggle to take in air; she wasn’t aware of someone approaching her until she felt something pressed against her mouth and chin. Green eyes opened suddenly, Pyrrha giving a sharp gasp against the plastic prison imposed upon her, and found that whatever was being pumped into it made the pain begin to fade and drowsiness beginning to take over her body, beginning to make her limbs heavy.

She made contact with another pair of eyes, heterochromatic, one pink and one brown. Their owner stared down at her, expression dry… almost a little… pitying. Pyrrha took deep breaths as she caught up to her prior inability to breathe, took in more of this girl’s appearance despite the haziness in her brain as her eyelids became too heavy to keep open. Pale skin, two toned hair, slightly rounded chin…

Pyrrha could no longer remain awake through the agony, and lost consciousness.

* * *

 

She wasn’t sure how long she was unconscious, but when she woke up again she still had an oxygen mask over her mouth and the stinging, burning pain all over her body had lessened to a dull ache. Her chest felt a bit restricted, and when she looked down she found bandages covering the wounds on her chest and her heel. Dark red blood had leaked through and violated the white fabric, and mere moments after she woke up, the same girl from when she passed out. The stranger looked a little annoyed as she approached and sat herself down on the edge of the bench Pyrrha slept on.

The girl was silent as she unwrapped the bandage around Pyrrha’s foot, cleaned the wound before carefully and securely wrapping a fresh bandage around it. The athlete was a little surprised that she felt little while having her rather severe wounds moved. She thought about speaking, but ended up staying in silence as the girl moved on to the wound right over her heart. The thought crossed through Pyrrha’s mind that she was topless, that her privacy was being invaded, but she realized that she probably shouldn’t care about that right now considering she had been on Death’s door for god knows how long.

The girl reached for the oxygen mask on Pyrrha’s face and pulled it away, and the athlete couldn’t help a soft, hoarse cry that left her at a sudden and sharp pain through her chest when she took a breath of fresh air. One small, pale finger was pressed against her lips, and despite her breathing becoming a little shakier and more forced she shut up rather quickly. She reached to the ground, lifted a bowl with steam rising from whatever it contained. Pyrrha could smell soup.

Her stomach growled, but the thought of eating while in this much pain alone made her want to throw up. The girl gathered some of the food in a spoon, began moving it to Pyrrha’s mouth, and she couldn’t help but twist her face out of the way. She swore she heard an annoyed huff from this stranger, who grabbed her by the chin and forced her back to looking ahead. A little more forcefully, the girl brought the spoon to her lips and forced the spoonful of soup into Pyrrha’s mouth.

She gagged at suddenly having the hot liquid rush down her throat, but swallowed nonetheless, unable to hold herself back from doing so. She wondered how long she had been asleep to have gotten this hungry. The girl continued to feed her the soup, though it rather quickly became less like forcefeeding and more like Pyrrha needing someone to feed her because she couldn’t move by herself. Which was true. She was certain that if she even tried to shift she would break into a million tiny pieces on the floor. Either way, it didn’t take her very long to finish off the soup, and though nausea settled into her stomach rather quickly because she ate something for the first time in a while, she couldn’t deny she felt better.

However, the last effects of whatever painkiller the oxygen mask had been feeding her wore off rather quickly, and pain was beginning to settle over her entire body. Apparently done with what she had been tasked to come and do, the girl picked the oxygen mask back up and began moving it to Pyrrha’s face; the athlete just barely managed to force out a “wait.” The stranger paused, head tilted and brows furrowed, and Pyrrha asked; “What’s your name?”

Mismatched eyes blinked twice at her, and the girl rose one hand. Pyrrha’s understanding of sign language was a little rusty, especially considering she was in so much pain and had been through such a traumatic experience, but she could at least identify the letters the girl spelled with her hands: N-E-O-P-O-L-I-T-A-N. A brief pause, and then she signed again; N-E-O. The athlete might have commented on the fact that she was named after an ice cream had the oxygen mask not been placed over her mouth before she could even open it again, and she watched Neo move to the machine it was hooked up to, refill it with a strange pink liquid.

The painkiller must have also contained something to knock her out, because Pyrrha’s world went black within only a few moments.

* * *

 

If the objective was to keep her disoriented, it worked out pretty nicely. Pyrrha had no idea how much time passed between the times she was awake; she would sleep for an unknown amount of time, wake up to find Neo dressing her wounds and feeding her before refilling the medicine, and then leaving. Her wounds never healed very much, her pain persisted; the only real way she could tell time was passing was because her weight was beginning to drop off, her carefully maintained athletic physique turning into something wilted and thin and unhealthy. There wasn’t even a window to see the time of day from.

Neo was the only person she saw for a while at first, but after a while she began seeing a woman she recognized as Emerald, who would completely ignore her as she did her duties, complained about having to play nurse as she fed Pyrrha and would occasionally drive her nails into one of her unhealed wounds just out of spite. Another person, a boy named Mercury, unknowingly showed her how her wounds were being kept from healing by driving arrows into the wounds and reopening them every so often. She often wondered if anyone could hear her screaming from the torture; even the oxygen mask wasn’t enough to ease her back to a state of rest; at least, not until Neo would hustle in, turn up the amount being fed to her so that her entire body went numb, her head felt like it was floating, and she passed back out within mere moments.

She wasn’t sure if it was because Neo showed her a surprising amount of mercy compared to the other two that would be tasked with caring for her. She wasn’t sure if it was healthy, she wasn’t sure if it was good. But she found herself beginning to enjoy the times the tiny girl would come in to take care of her instead of Mercury and Emerald. She found her heart rate spiking a little whenever she woke up and Neo walked into her cell. She found warmth beginning to flood into her mind.

Pyrrha wondered if that was real, or if it was just Stockholm’s Syndrome making her feel like the captor treating her the most like a person rather than an object locked away in one room to be maintained was her friend. Either way, she supposed at least a little bit of gratefulness was in order for the girl that was keeping her sanity intact through what she could only assume was months of laying on an uncomfortable surface.

One day, after Mercury’s torture, Pyrrha was barely aware of herself as she asked Neo in tears - “Why haven’t they just killed me yet?”

Neo stared at her with those intelligent eyes, blinked twice before she finally rose her hands to sign in response. Pyrrha’s mind was scrambled, and she was in enough pain that she could hardly make out a few phrases - “powerful,” “fall maiden,” “hostage.” The meaning was lost on her, and as she gasped for breath, the tiny girl finally moved to the machine and upped her dosage. She wasn’t sure why, but she tried to fight the unconsciousness as it carried her away into something more peaceful.

* * *

 

The next time Pyrrha woke up, she was surprised to find that it was because Neo was holding her up on her back. The athlete blinked, surprised that someone so small was strong enough to haul someone so much taller than her, but she supposed that all the weight she lost helped with that. A stabbing pain ran through her chest, and she was trying to keep her breathing stable as she was carried out of her cell. Pyrrha winced and whined quietly at the sudden bright white light that filled the hallway outside, and was rewarded with a harsh shush from Neo - the most noise the smaller girl had ever made in her presence, she was pretty sure - as she walked quickly down the hallway until she reached a large window.

“I’m not going to be able to climb down,” she tried to argue with Neo, appreciating that she was trying to break her out but knowing that she would probably die if she tried to get down from that height. She had really withered away over the months, to the point that she doubted she could walk even beyond just having a wounded heel. Neo responded simply by signing “fresh snow,” before lifting Pyrrha up onto the windowsill and pushing her down.

Pyrrha couldn’t even scream as she fell through the icy winter air, the fall seeming to be so long but so short at the same time. She was surprised to find that, when she landed, the ground beneath her was soft and cushioned her fall easily; she couldn’t help but wonder how much snow needed to fall for her to be unharmed by such a fall, but either way, Neo landed beside her within mere moments before hauling the athlete up onto her back and beginning to carry her through the snow.

She was still in a lot of pain, but the fresh air was so wonderful to breathe that Pyrrha barely noticed. She looked around the world with wide eyes, watched as snowflakes fell to the ground, barely visible in the cold night air. The girls’ breath appeared in front of them in clear white puffs, and the snow began to pick up as lights became visible in the distance.

Neo hauled her into a small village, the houses around them wooden and full of warm yellow light that pierced the darkness of the night. The small girl made her way to a house she seemed to recognize, signed the situation to the kind looking old woman that answered the door, and Pyrrha found herself laying on a soft bed in a warm room for the first time in God knows how long.

Wondering how she had survived this long, the athlete drifted off to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pyrrha and Neo travel to Atlas.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i love penny polendina thank you

The full extent of Pyrrha’s problems were deeper than she expected them to be. Her wounds were mildly infected, so she needed to remain in bed for another few weeks while the kindly old woman who she learned helped raise Neo took care of the injuries. The woman was kind to her, but she couldn’t help feeling a little smothered under her extensive worrying and care. She was exhausted a majority of the time, both physically and mentally, and the woman explained that it was because of how hard her body was working to fight off the infections and heal her body. She started physical therapy a couple of days after going to the woman’s house, working towards getting her undernourished and weak body back to at least good enough shape for a journey, and for a month she was too tired to do much more than sleep the moment she was allowed to go back to her room for alone time.

After the exhaustion started to lighten up and the exercise started to get easier, though, Pyrrha began to have visions in the night that made it impossible for her to do much sleeping. They started mild; echoes of the scream she heard the night she almost died, feeling her body fall apart. As time went on, though, they became more vivid and extreme; feeling the pain of having her wounds reopened, the mocking laughter of her torturers. She began seeing dark eyes every time she closed hers, spotting shadows in the corners of the room where she slept that she was sure would hurt her.

As much as Pyrrha appreciated that she was able to have some sort of privacy now, that she could sleep in peace knowing that she would wake up in the morning without incident. Logically, she knew that every day would come and go without more torture and more pain, but emotionally, she wasn’t as sure. Emotionally, she could still feel the clenching fist of fear over her ribs whenever she awoke and whenever she went to sleep. The only thing keeping her from avoiding sleep altogether was her determinedness to heal, get better both physically and mentally so that she could help her friends again. She knew that her recovery depended on her getting rest and not overdoing it; Pyrrha had been an athlete and a student at Beacon Academy long enough to know that much, long enough to be smart about it.

She pushed through her mental difficulty for the sake of her physical recovery, knowing that just neglecting both wouldn’t help her much. Pyrrha had been a walking skeleton when she first arrived in the tiny village; her muscles from a lifetime of training having withered away from what she learned was eighteen months of being stuck in an uncomfortable bed, underfed and unable to move, and her weight had dropped off of her body. At first, she moved on shaking legs and fell over if Neo wasn’t there to catch her, but after a few weeks, she could move on her own.

Winter melted into spring, and Pyrrha could run. Spring warmed into summer, and Pyrrha could lift weights. Summer cooled into autumn, and despite the horrific trauma she relived night after night, the former athlete was thrilled with her progress. She was happy to find muscles beginning to build on her arms and legs, a bit of weight added to her bones as movement became easier. Every so often, she would sprint across the yard of the house she was staying in despite Neo’s warning to keep hidden - just because she could. Just to feel the wind combing through her long hair, just to feel the burning of her lungs as she pumped her limbs and breathed the crisp autumn air.

Late into the fall, Pyrrha sat in her bedroom a couple of hours before she usually slept, the news spread out in front of her as she continued her nightly ritual of catching up on everything that had happened in the time since she had been taken captive. She was startled when her door suddenly opened, felt a pang of panic through her body as widened green eyes looked up. She calmed rather quickly when she realized that it was only Neo that stood there, that the odds of her being hurt again were low.

[We need to get moving,] Neo signed to her, tossed a sizeable duffel bag her way that Pyrrha caught easily. [We’re heading out to Atlas in the morning. You’re well enough to walk a decent ways and I’ve let them go long enough without retribution.] The small girl turned on her heel to leave rather quickly, looking irritated and a little curt as she did so, and briefly Pyrrha wasn’t even sure if she wanted to press her (friend?) ally for answers.

“Wait,” she said quickly, getting up for her bed and noticing briefly how much easier it was to move than it had been when she first arrived. “Why are we going to Atlas? What do you mean they’ve gone too long without retribution? I thought your old bosses were in the opposite direction.” Unless she was completely unaware of her current geography, which was entirely possible, but she had put together a rough map in her mind of where she was. A desolate area near the spawning ground of the Creatures of Grimm that didn’t really belong to any of the kingdoms. A village of outcasts and refugees, people who didn’t have much of any other choice than to live in such a dangerous place.

She was pretty sure that, if Neo wanted to confront what she heard the old lady call Salem’s faction, she would need to go back to the manor where Pyrrha had been held prisoner for a year and a half. A risky move, especially with the former athlete still recovering, but she didn’t doubt Neo’s ability to get impatient and hurry back to where the two had run from.

Neo scoffed, as if she was offended that Pyrrha would question her, but she didn’t hesitate in answering the questions asked of her. [In case you haven’t noticed, there’s only two of us. You’re getting your strength back, but you’re still weak, and I might be tough but I’m small.] She turned on her heel, rested her weight against the doorway. Pyrrha had gotten reasonably used to keeping track of what Neo was saying, so the small girl wasn’t holding back how quickly she could move her hands when she was trying to communicate. [I want to go find allies. We’re far from the only ones with bones to pick with Salem and her goons, and a layer of security would probably help us a lot. Atlas has a really powerful military, so I think that’s a good place to start.]

The recovering athlete could poke a big hole in the other girl’s plan almost immediately; she was supposed to be dead, Neo was a wanted criminal. They would probably be apprehended upon arrival anywhere populated, let alone in front of a powerful military leader. [Wipe that look off your face,] the other girl signed with a scoff. [I’m not bad at acting or disguising myself. As long as you can manage wearing a hood and keeping your face hidden, I’m sure we’ll be fine. In case you haven’t noticed, you don’t exactly have your signature armor or even the same body type anymore.]

The reminder stung a little, but Pyrrha wouldn’t deny that she was right. She hardly looked like herself, some of her facial features the only recognizable parts of her person - and even those were a little more gaunt and tired than they had been nearly two and a half years ago when she was taken prisoner. It had been long enough since she was last seen that the odds of her being recognized were low as long as she remained careful. “Okay,” she replied, still nervous but more than willing to try.

She gathered her scarce amount of belongings into the bag supplied to her, and although she struggled to sleep that night as she always did, Pyrrha couldn’t hold down her excitement and second wind of energy when the two of them left the village and moved to the nearest airport to head to Atlas. It had been so long since she was anywhere near the modern civilization she was used to and had grown up in, and Pyrrha was excited to re-enter it, even if she had to do so from a distance.

* * *

 

[Wander around a little, but don’t head out too far from where we are right now. I want to be able to find you after this meeting, but they’ll recognize you between their five million security measures.] That was the command that Neo gave her before she turned on her heel and made her way into the military base. Pyrrha blinked, watched her back disappear into the building; she must have been either extremely careless or confident that no member of Salem’s faction would try and make a move in such a populated area just yet. The recovering athlete decided to believe the latter for now.

Just… wander? Sightsee? She wasn’t sure how exactly to do that, honestly. Feeling a bit of awkwardness that she assumed was just because of how long she had gone without really talking to people. With slightly tensed shoulders, Pyrrha began to make her way down the streets of Atlas, glancing around at the bustling people and feeling a little more secure when she began to realize that they were all minding their own business. She wasn’t exactly a suspicious person, so there was no reason for her to attract attention, right? She held her head up a little higher as she walked with a bit more confidence to her stride, a bit more of a pep to her step…

“Pyrrha Nikos?”

The voice speaking her name was enough to make Pyrrha stop cold in her tracks, her entire body freezing as she slowly turned her head to look at whoever had just spoken to her. She was surprised that she had been recognized, but even more surprised at the source of the voice.

The girl behind her was short, but not as short as Neo. She had vivid green eyes, splashes of freckles on her pale cheeks and a pink bow holding her fluffy red hair out of her face. A shocked expression was on her face, and she wore a simple green sundress despite the rapidly chilling temperatures; there was no mistaking it, this was the one and only Penny Polendina. The girl Pyrrha thought she killed, the girl she had watched get torn to pieces in front of her. Pyrrha was sure that she was hallucinating for several moments, seeing the faces of the dead in her dreams again, and she began walking backwards to get away from the vision, until…

Penny lunged forward and wrapped her arms around Pyrrha with surprising strength. The android’s head rested against her chest, and at first the athlete was startled and had no idea how to react. Emotion welled up in her chest, completely overwhelmed her, and the reaction she finally settled on was to wrap her arms around the girl she’d thought to be dead. “I thought you died,” Pyrrha spoke, her voice quiet and choked as she held Penny close.

She had never been terribly close to the android, but she had known her as an innocent and energetic and lively girl. Someone who hadn’t deserved what came to her. She was so happy, so overwhelmingly happy that Penny was alright.

“My body was destroyed, but my AI was still intact, so I had a new body built!” she chirped, eyes glittering as she looked up at Pyrrha, who felt tears beginning to build in her eyes. “I’ve been told not to leave the area of the base, though. It’s kind of boring…”

A thought passed through her mind, and Pyrrha gently grasped Penny’s wrists. “My friend and I are travelling to try and stop the people who almost killed me and you,” she told the android, unable to hide the hope in her voice. “Why don’t you come with us? It’ll be a good reason to get out of the city.”

A grin spread across Penny’s face, and she nodded enthusiastically, bouncing on her feet. Pyrrha couldn’t help the happy laugh that bubbled past her throat.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The trio is officially established.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> neo has hit that point of "too stressed to be a smug bastard" and honestly as a college student with a part time job i relate

The hotel room that Neo had rented out for them was definitely big enough to fit an extra person, Pyrrha thought, so she had no problem in bringing Penny back to it. She was concerned with how her ally would respond to finding an android that was supposed to be dead in their hiding spot, of course, but she trusted Penny - she trusted her friend to not sell her out to Ironwood or anyone else that might want to know that she was still alive or Neo was still active. “You have to promise me that you won’t tell anybody that I’m alive or that I’m with my friend, okay?” she asked the android, taking the other girl’s hands in her own gently and hoping that the look in her eyes was pleading enough to convince her.

Penny’s brows furrowed, a bit of a confused look crossing her face, but she nodded nonetheless. “I promise,” she answered without hesitation, but seemed very quick to speak again - a little bluntly. “Do you not want all of your friends to know you’re still alive? That seems a bit cruel to them, Pyrrha. They’ve spent so much time mourning you. I think they would really like to know you’re alive.”

A pang of guilt hit Pyrrha’s chest, and she sighed heavily. “I know.” The death of Penny had been one of the many traumatizing events that she relived on the occasion she wasn’t in too much pain or too drugged up to think, near constantly while she was living with the kind old woman and recovering from her injuries. “I can’t tell them, though. Not yet. As much as I want to. I’m… trying to stay as under the radar as I possibly can right now, because Neo and I have a mission to do to try and stop the people who killed you and me, to try and save anyone else from getting hurt.”

Although Penny still looked a little confused and hurt, she seemed to understand at least a little, and she nodded in response. “You need to tell them eventually, though,” the android told her, the tone in her voice a little stern, and Pyrrha had to hold down a laugh. It wasn’t that she thought Penny’s insistence that she contact her old friends was silly - far from it, she knew that the younger girl was right. She was just so overwhelmed with joy at finally being in an urban area again and finding out that the precious friend she thought she was responsible for the death of was still alive.

Everything that was happening almost seemed too good to be true. She had been freed from captivity, and her body was recovering from months and months of trauma and torture - her mind was struggling to catch up, but was getting there. She had befriended one of the people that worked for those that held her there, although she wasn’t sure if Neo would quite use the term friend in return. She had been allowed to wander around Atlas a little, albeit briefly, not having to completely hide herself, only needing to remain anonymous. And now she was able to talk to Penny again.

She ushered Penny over to one of the beds in their hotel room and sat down across from her, hands in her lap and light in her eyes. “Tell me how you’ve been doing. What’s been going on? I’ve been able to read the news a little for the last few months, but… I haven’t really been able to access much besides a few newspapers, and I haven’t gotten a lot of time to go through them all.”

“Well… Beacon Academy has been closed down for the moment because of the destruction that was caused by the big battle right after I died. I’ve been in touch with Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang, Jaune, Nora, Ren, and a few other friends.” She counted the people she mentioned on her fingers as she spoke. “Ruby and her team are travelling right now, trying to find out more about the White Fang and whoever they’re working with to try and prevent anything else like the attack on Beacon from happening. The world was kind of in complete chaos for a couple months trying to deal with it, let alone that stuff with the White Fang sneaking the Grimm in.” She shook her head, face uncharacteristically serious.

Pyrrha blinked, and bit down the temptation to tell Penny she knew who was working with the White Fang - or, at least, the names and faces of a few of them. She wanted to wait until Neo had returned to the hotel room and could confirm that Penny would travel with them and work with them. She didn’t know why she was falling back on the other girl’s authority for the moment, but she was.

Either way, she knew that she probably ought to say something relating to what Penny told her, so she asked the first question that crossed her mind. “How has everyone been doing?” She hated to admit it, but the first thought that passed through her mind when remembering the friends she left behind was Jaune. She remembered the sadness and exhaustion she saw on his face the last night she was able to speak to him, and her heart sunk. The feelings had lessened significantly on her end - which was understandable considering how much she’d gone through - but she wondered if Jaune was still hung up on her, was still mourning her and thinking that she was dead.

“Everyone’s doing better.” Penny shrugged, her mood visibly dropping. Pyrrha had to admire how easy she was to read - every emotion she went through, every thought, was easy to see on her face. “The battle put everyone through a lot they’re still trying to deal with. Ruby says she still has nightmares every night and panic attacks whenever she sees anything that reminds her of it. Jaune has trouble sleeping at all, though he’s been getting better with it. It took Yang months to be willing to use a prosthetic arm and try to fight again. Blake still blames herself for some of what happened. Weiss abandoned her father and brother altogether.”

Pyrrha’s heart sunk, as did her shoulders. She sighed, and was about to speak up again when she heard the door to the hotel room open. The former athlete sat up straight and looked to the doorway, her heart rate spiking - she didn’t know why, but now every time a door opened without someone knocking first, she became afraid of someone coming to hurt her again. Penny must have seen fear cross her face, because the android reached over to put a hand over her wrist.

The fear began to fade the moment she realized that it was only Neo, returning from her meeting with Ironwood - though the expression on the petite girl’s face was far from a reassuring one. She spotted Penny rather quickly, and almost immediately her expression twisted into one of rage as she stormed over to Pyrrha and Penny. [Who is this and why is she here?] the small girl signed with such ferocity and speed that the former athlete could barely keep up with the words she was communicating. [Did you let her here? What the fuck were you thinking? We’re supposed to be keeping hidden, you can’t just announce to whoever you want who we are and where we’re hiding.]

Her first instinct was to tell Neo that they weren’t exactly hiding considering they were staying in a hotel that anyone could enter and book a room in, but she got the sense that wouldn’t be a very good idea. “You don’t recognize her?” Pyrrha asked, and the scowl on Neo’s voice deepened enough that she quickly kept talking. “This is Penny Polendina, one of the people that died because of Salem’s faction. Or… her body was destroyed, anyway. She wants to help as much as she can and travel with us. She’s an android with a good reason to come along, and I trust her not to try anything funny.”

Neo didn’t seem to be very soothed by her words, and when she began signing again, she hadn’t calmed down any. [Her? Are you serious? She’s the most naive person that’s ever lived. I don’t care how young she is or how she’s not human, she trusts so easily. That was something that Cinder wanted to take advantage of when we were planning everything. I can’t believe you would…]

Her furious signing was cut off when Penny finally spoke up, standing up from the bed and approaching Neo. Pyrrha had never seen the android looking so serious, her brows furrowed and a small frown on her face as she used her height to her advantage as she faced the small girl. “It’s not very nice to talk badly about someone that’s still in the room.” Pyrrha hadn’t been aware that Penny understood sign language, but she supposed that it was for the best. She barely had time to teach an android how to keep track of what their unofficial leader said. “I may have been very naive when you first met me and first planned to commit the unthinkable acts you did. And yes, you were a part of those, whether you like it or not.” Her words were cold and scolding, to a level that stunned Pyrrha. She wasn’t sure if she was more nervous or proud of the android. “I have been through a lot and learned quite a bit, however. My body may be new, but my mind and my memories are the same. I know now that I shouldn’t automatically trust everyone I meet until it’s too late now. However, Pyrrha is one of the people I do trust, and I want to help her. I want to help save as many people as I possibly can.”

Neo snorted, one of the few noises she was actually capable of making, and the look on her face revealed the sarcasm behind her words when she signed again. [Noble.] Maybe Pyrrha was just imagining things, but she swore she could see Neo’s thin shoulders slump slightly for a moment before she went back to her usual businesslike and strict persona and continued. [Alright, if she says she trusts you I guess I’ll live with it. This is only because we have no other choice, though.] She turned slightly, now addressing Pyrrha moreso than Penny. [The meeting with Ironwood didn’t go well. He didn’t seem to want to take me seriously at all.] She rolled her eyes, and the former athlete couldn’t help but wonder whether she was just trying to cover up disappointment or stress. [We’re going to have to get moving pretty soon, unless either of you has a better idea.]

“Maybe we could get in touch with Weiss Schnee? Her family’s company is based here, right?” Pyrrha’s suggestion was based more out of a longing to see someone, anyone else that she was friends with - now that she had reunited with Penny, she longed for the people she had gone to school with at Beacon. “Plus, if Beacon is closed down for repairs, I’d assume she moved to Atlas Academy to continue her studies. That would be the logical next step.”

“Actually, Weiss is no longer in touch with her family with the exception of her older sister, and she isn’t currently attending an academy--” Penny began to speak, only to be cut off by Neo gesturing for her to be quiet before actually putting her two cents in.

[I will not have anything to do with team RWBY anyway.] Pyrrha caught a glimpse of something dangerous in Neo’s eyes, but the small girl didn’t explain much further. [Not that the Schnees would willingly help us, anyway. Their greedy head follows a lot of what Ironwood tells him, and they blame the people of Beacon for what happened to them. Turning to a corporation isn’t a good idea. So if neither of you has a better idea, I think we should make our way to Vale. The people who were most affected by the attack would probably be the most willing to help.]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> weiss' arc is actually one of the few things i liked about volume 4.

**Author's Note:**

> please comment if you enjoyed!


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